Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Fifty-Three

    Conquer, they did. The audience's excitement was infectious, leaving Mia exhilarated. For a lot of the second half, she hung in the back with one lone spotlight on her while Drake stood at the front of the stage, talking to the crowd through verse. But at the end of the show, he turned towards her with a huge grin on his face. She stared at him for a long moment, then ran at him and jumped on him.

    He wrapped his arms around her as the audience erupted in applause. "You were so good," he said to her, shouting over the music. "The entire show...the entire show, you were so good. I'm, like, so proud of you, baby girl."

    "I loved watching you," she shouted back to him. "You're so amazing to watch when you're performing."

    He laughed and, still holding her, he turned towards the crowd and raised one arm into the air.

    The audience started chanting.

    Mia frowned in confusion and lowered her legs until her heels touched the floor. "What are they saying?" she shouted to him.

    He licked his lips and turned his head. Then, he dramatically raised a hand and cupped it around his ear.

    "One more song! One more song! One more song!"

    Smiling, he lifted his microphone. "I think they're saying they want one more song," he said into the microphone.

    She scratched her temple. Keeping her microphone low, she said, "But we don't have anything else practiced."

    He moved the microphone away from his mouth. "Yeah, there are a ton of songs we could do, but Future isn't prepared. I don't know if he'd have the music. We'd have to go acapella - but like you said, we haven't practiced."

    "So...what do we do?"

    "Let me just...let me think for a minute."

    While he took the time to think the crowd just got louder and louder. "Hurry up!" she exclaimed, looking at the audience worriedly.

    "Damn, I'm thinking," he shouted back to her.

    "One more song! One more song! One more song!"

    Mia nervously chewed on her bottom lip and stepped away from Drake.

    He reached out and grabbed her hand.

    She stopped walking and looked at him over her shoulder.

    The look in his eyes asked her what she was doing.

    All she gave him was a smile before squeezing his hand and letting go. She moved to the front of the stage, clasping the microphone in both hands. She gazed out over the audience and saw a sea of cell phone lights, twinkling like stars in the sky. The crowd wants one more song, she thought while tapping her fingers in the barrel of the microphone. So we should give them one more song. Her heart thudded in her chest as she turned to face the side of the stage, with her right shoulder facing the crowd.

    There were screams sprinkled throughout the audience, and then a hush fell over the crowd.

    "Now...I want all of you to listen closely to the words, okay? Because I'm going to sing them once, and then I want you to try to sing them with me. I know it's asking a lot, since this will be the only time you've heard these lyrics. This is something new I've been working on, so...be kind, guys." She could feel Drake's eyes on her, but she didn't look in his direction. Doing that would throw her off. Am I really going to do this? she asked herself. The answer was clear when she raised the microphone to her mouth and belted out, "Since you've been gooooooooooooooone..."

    Sensing that they were about to hear something new, the audience lost it.

    Mia laughed into the microphone and lowered it, turning her head and looking dead-on at the audience. When she raised her microphone again, she said, "This isn't the Kelly Clarkson track, by the way. I know that line is familiar, but there is where the similarity ends." She pressed an index finger into the ear without the earpiece and sang out,

"Since you've been gooooooooooooone,

I can't sleep,

I can't eat,

I can't breaaaaaaaathe...

Since you've been gooooooooooooone,

I've missed you.

What should I do?

Tell me the truuuuuuuuuuuuth?

Have you missed meeeeee

Since you've been gone?"

    She angled the microphone away from her mouth and bowed her head. Eyes closed, she lowered her voice several octaves.

"Now that I'm alone in my hotel room...

There are some questions I must ask myself...

'Cause the fact of the matter is I want you...

Baby, I don't want anyone else...

So I sit here, and I'm thinkiiiiiiiiiing...

Baby, I'm sitting here and I'm thinkiiiiiiiiiing...

What is liiiiiiiiiiiife?

Withoooooout you,

I never knewwwwwwww

I'd meet somebody whoooooooooo

Completes meeeeeeee

The way you do.

You see right through

To the real Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-aaaaa."

    Her heart was beating erratically. There was a pause between the last word she sang and the applause, but once the applause came, it threatened to tear the roof off of the place. She turned to face them sheepishly and tucked hair behind her ear. With a shy smile, she asked them, "Did you get all of that?"

    A deep voice sounded from the speakers scattered throughout the arena. "I don't know if they got it, but I sure did." Drake moved to stand beside her. He grabbed her hand again, and this time he didn't let go.

    She looked at him, beaming proudly, and turned back to the audience. "All right, so I'm going to do a countdown and then I'm going to start singing again. I want you to sing along with me. If you mess up on a few words or don't know some of the words, that's fine. Sing what you can."

    Most of the audience members she made eye contact with, as she started to sing, knew each and every word. They sang along with her. Drake sang along with her, his deep silky voice providing a nice canvas for her significantly higher-pitched vocals. She liked the sound of their voices blended together. She liked the way their everything blended together.

    When the song was over, the lights cut out and the applause was thunderous. Drake pulled her into his arms. "I fucking love you," he said into her ear. "Do you know that? If you'd let me, I'd marry you right fucking now, because I fucking love you."

    She slid her arms around his waist. "I love you too, babe," she returned, resting her head against her chest. Later, she would regret not taking him to a chapel right then and there. But in this moment, she was so overwhelmed, she couldn't process the words he'd spoken to her. She took their base sentiment, which was that he loved her, and made sure that he knew the feeling was mutual, and hugged him back with all that she had.